Spandau Ballet

Recently, the band have managed to put their differences behind them and a reunion tour has been mentioned; however, the success of Martin Kemp's acting career means that plans remain on hold. More recently, a group of Swing Out Sister fans on the Internet has begun an e-mail campaign to get them on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The Late Show with David Letterman. The three non-Kemp members toured as a trio, but as Gary Kemp owned the rights to the name of Spandau Ballet, they had to go under the less-than-catchy moniker of 'Hadley, Keeble and Norman, ex-Spandau Ballet'. Swing Out Sister has an ardent fan-following, many of whom were there from the start in 1987. As a result, Hadley in particular was left very short of money, and he ended up entertaining troops and taking part in the reality show Reborn in the USA. The power of Swing Out Sister: "They don't fit niches, because they create their own time and time again.". In the 1990s, Hadley, Keeble and Norman launched a failed court case against Gary Kemp for a share of royalties which they claimed they were due. The first album in 1987 was hailed as "jazzy, horn-coloured pop that puts an '80s techno veneer to the smoky aroma of late-'50s nightclubs"! And while the techno veneer has been toned down since then, their music is still lush and upbeat.

Gary Kemp did a little more acting, appearing in a supporting role in the Kevin Costner hit The Bodyguard, and in 1996 released a critically praised solo album, Little Bruises.
For more history of Swing Out Sister:. Martin Kemp went on to land an acting role in the UK soap opera Eastenders, while Tony Hadley floundered trying to establish a solo career. GQ Magazine reviewed it and called it "indisputably their finest record to date". The album bombed and Spandau Ballet — from whom Gary Kemp was already feeling estranged — split up for good. The UK edition came in July 2004. After a hiatus from recording during which the Kemps established themselves as credible actors in the gangster film The Krays, the band released Heart Like a Sky in 1989. The band's latest album, the eighth studio effort, was released in Japan on April 28, 2004: "Where Our Love Grows".

The title track was a big hit in the UK, but the album did nothing in America. Their old recording label, Universal dropped them from their contract in America due to poor CD sales, so they signed on with Shananchie Entertainment. In 1986 Spandau Ballet signed to Epic Records and released Through the Barricades, which saw the band trying to move away from the pop/soul influences of True and Parade and more towards rock. This album is a fan favourite. At the end of 1984, the band performed on the Band Aid charity single, with Hadley taking a prominent lead vocal role; and in 1985, they performed at the Wembley end of Live Aid. The seventh album, "Somewhere Deep in the Night", was released in May 2001 in Japan with subsequent release in Europe and USA. It is quintessential Swing Out Sister: lush, brassy and stringy arrangements to melodic tunes with pure cinematic sweep. Its opening single "Only When You Leave" became their last American hit. The music is pure and impeccable swingoutsisterish: good swinging tunes, sans the lush arrangements but with a strong emphasis on darker lyrics.

But the followup, Parade (1984), was critically drubbed for failing to move the band's sound forward. The album was released in Japan in March 1999, and it is still the only album not released in any other country. The album topped the charts on the both sides of the Atlantic and launched several hit singles such as "Gold" and the aforementioned title cut. The sixth album, "Filth and Dreams", proved yet again that Swing Out Sister was eager to reinvent themselves. It was at this point that Norman became the band's sax player. Producer Paul O'Duffy was back at the helm, and so was the lush arrangements of the first three albums. The image changed too - the cossack outfits and make-up of New Romanticism (which was dying as a fad in 1983 anyway) had been replaced by smart suits and well-scrubbed faces. The fifth album, "Shapes and Patterns", was first released in Japan only in March 1997, but it was released in Europe and USA the year after.

With newfound confidence and a cleaner, radio-friendly sound, Spandau Ballet finally broke into the mainstream with True (1983), an album whose title cut was a six-minute opus paying tribute to the Motown sound (and in some respects, Marvin Gaye). Their song "Now You're Not Here" (from their album "Shapes And Patterns", one of several released only in Japan) was used as the theme to a Japanese TV program, and received a Japanese 'Grand Prix' (the equivalent of a Grammy) for best international single in 1997. It was a massive hit. But few of the band's releases charted in Western countries after the successful debut album; however, the band had become extremely popular in Japan. Horn also took the Diamond album track "Instinction" and gave it a bombastic dance remix that sounded not unlike the work he would later do for Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Swing Out Sister was now a complete band of ten members, which worked great when going on tour. The followup album Diamond performed poorly, despite a big hit with "Chant No.1", and the band met with veteran producer Trevor Horn, who advised them on how to revamp their image and sound. Long-time producer Paul O'Duffy was replaced by Ray Hayden, combining a "raw" feel to the songs that in most cases were the results of jam sessions in the studio.

This was followed by "The Freeze" and "Musclebound" and the well-received album Journeys to Glory. The fourth album, "The Living Return", was released in September 1994 and is a departure of sorts. The band eventually signed to Island Records and released "To Cut a Long Story Short", a British hit in 1980. With more danceable rhythms than ever before, it sports a cover of the Dusty Springfield classic "Am I the Same Girl". They began performing and generating positive buzz around London as the house band at the Blitz nightclub, which became regarded as the birthplace of a new 1980s music and fashion phenomenon called New Romanticism. The third album, "Get In Touch With Yourself", was released in May 1992. The band were initially called 'The Makers', but changed their name after a visit to Berlin, the inspiration from graffiti on the walls of Spandau Prison. It makes you want to drive to Monte Carlo in a mini, and talk like Michael Caine." Today, the album is regarded as one of their finest.

Guitarist and songwriter Gary Kemp and his brother, bassist Martin Kemp formed the band in 1979, with drummer John Keeble, lead vocalist Tony Hadley and Steve Norman, who initially played guitar but later switched to saxophone when the band changed musical direction. It was more classical in arrangements and songwriting, "a giant rollercoaster of a record. As with their poppier rivals Duran Duran they 'broke America', albeit briefly. The second album, "Kaleidoscope World", was released in May 1989 to great acclaim. Initially inspired by a mixture of funk, synthpop and New Romantic, they eventually mellowed into a mainstream AOR pop act. Jackson later worked for Frank Zappa. Spandau Ballet was a popular band of the 1980s. Jackson left the group during the making of the second album, "Kaleidoscope World"; while the liner notes give "special thanks to Martin Jackson", they also note that "Swing Out Sister are Corinne Drewery & Andy Connell." Drewery and Connell have been the core of the group for all subsequent albums.

"Breakout" went into the top ten in the US as well and was nominated for a Grammy in 1988. Together with their producer, Paul Staveley O'Duffy, they signed with Mercury Records and released their debut album, "It's Better To Travel", on May 11, 1987, which went to #1 on the UK album charts; the singles "Breakout" and "Surrender" were top ten hits in the UK. (The name came from a 1945 movie starring Arthur Treacher, called Swing Out, Sister.) Both Connell and Jackson had been playing in other bands prior to forming SOS, while Drewery was actually a fashion designer before joining up with the band. Swing Out Sister was formed by Andy Connell (keyboards), Martin Jackson (drums) and Corinne Drewery (vocals).

Various listeners have classified their sound as everything from smooth jazz to cool jazz to acid jazz. Swing Out Sister is a rock-jazz-pop musical group best known worldwide for their 1987 song "Breakout", their only song to reach the US top 10. http://www.asterion.se/soshistory.html.